Monday, October 18, 2010

sirens and strong fantasy heroines

by
cindy

last weekend i spent four days in vail,coloradofor the sirens con, which focuseson strongheroines in fantasy. it was anintimate conferencewith about one hundredattendees in a beautifulsetting with wonderful staff and volunteers. i couldn'thave had a better time!

there was an author tea with signing onfriday and saturday afternoons. it was one ofmy favorite part of the conference as i got tomeet fellow readers, other authors, and evenhad awesome gifts from Silver Phoenix fans toshow off. rachel made a clay figure of ai lingwith a giant dumpling and an entire dim sum spreadincluding chicken feet. too cute! (for those whohaven't read Silver Phoenix, my heroine likesto eat. =)

and larry folded a chinese origami dragon forme during our Fey Folklore Around the World panel.he folded and gifted various creatures during theentire con, spreading origami happiness!

had a lovely long rowdy dinner withjulietgrames (soho editor), holly black(White Cat),sarah rees brennan(Demon's Covenant) andmalinda lo (Ash)at kelly liken in vail village.it was a verygood meal!on saturday, i went back into vail villageearlier with friends, to take in the gorgeousviews.me, shveta and andrea were 3/4 ofthe panel we heldon friday morning. i focusedon fox spirits as my maintopic of discussion:beautiful women who are parthuman and partfox, dangerous or romanticized, depending onthe narrator's moral for the story.

there were these meese statues throughoutvail village. this one was huge, a little scaryactually. and we figured, perhaps life size.

we decided on a cozy german restaurantfor dinner and i was in heaven! i very rarelyget to indulge in german fare. i had a wienerand a bratwurst over saurkraut with all theaccompanying cold salads. it was delicious.lookingat this foto makes me both wistfuland happy. =)

sunday morning was the last morningofthe con and i took the time to take a fotowith two authors whose books i really loveand whoare just delightful in person:sherwood smith(Crown Duel and Inda series)and ellen kushner(Swordspoint and Privilegeof the Sword). they'veboth written moreextensively and if you love fantasywith strongheroines, you really should check them out!

next year's theme will be MONSTERS and theguests of honor are justine larbalestier (Liar),nnedi okorafor (Who Fears Death) and lainitaylor (Lips Touch). women in fantasy as monsters.how cool of a theme is that? i definitely hope tobe there!!